Gifts that keep on giving

Something interesting is taking place in the artistic life of Worcester County. There has been a gradual, tidal change in this region’s art museums, notably in Worcester, Clinton and Fitchburg.

In 2006, the Museum of Russian Icons, brainchild of local manufacturer Gordon Lankton, opened in Clinton with more than 500 items, perhaps the most extensive collection of Russian Orthodox icons in the country. Its 3,000 visitors that year has increased to 11,000, its exhibition space has more than tripled, and big plans are afoot to expand its collection, build apartments and studios for visiting scholars, and expand its ties with the nearby Museum of African Art, also a Lankton project. Director Kent dur Russell confidently predicts that holdings will double in the next few years.

Here in Worcester came the recent retirement of James Welu, longtime director of the Worcester Art Museum. In over two decades, he had taken a museum with an international reputation and made it even more prestigious. WAM has more than 35,000 items that stretch across 5,000 years of human history. Mr.Welu has been succeeded by Matthias Waschek, a widely known figure in the art world with experience in Europe and America. Mr. Waschek has already had an impact at the museum with his successful campaign to reopen the front doors on Salisbury Street. He has capacious plans.

And last summer the Fitchburg Art Museum’s director, Peter Timms, announced his retirement. Mr. Timms, over more than 30 productive years, has built an impressive collection and has overseen many community outreach programs. The museum’s budget has risen from $50,000 40 years ago to more than $800,000, and its annual attendance from about 2,000 to 16,000. It is recognized as a jewel of northern Worcester County.

The new director, Nick Capasso, curator of the deCordova Museum in Lincoln, is known for his imaginative appreciation of modern art. He was a driving force behind the outdoor Sculpture Park at the deCordova. Fitchburg is in for some interesting years.Each of these episodes is a reminder of how art has become a part of life in America. In so many cases, art museums are the long shadow of remarkable individuals. I sometimes try to imagine the motives of those generous souls.

Here in Worcester the magic name is Stephen Salisbury III, scion of one of the city’s oldest and most prestigious families. His father and grandfather, both also named Stephen, amassed large fortunes in merchandizing and real estate, which were ably managed by the third Stephen Salisbury. He was an outstanding philanthropist, giving generously to colleges, churches and memorials. Bancroft Tower is his tribute to George Bancroft, the famed historian and Worcester native.

In the 1890s he decided that Worcester needed an art museum. It opened in 1898, and in the years since has won an international reputation and has been ranked as one of the finest small museums in the country, with more than 35,000 items in its collection and a slew of memorable exhibitions to its credit.

The Fitchburg Art Museum was founded in 1925 with a bequest from the estate of Eleanor Norcross (1854-1923), a Fitchburg native. She was an accomplished painter, exhibitor and dedicated patron of the arts. She lived most of her adult years in Paris, but maintained her ties to her native community, sometimes visiting Fitchburg and pursuing her dream of an art museum in her birthplace. I don’t know what the Fitchburg schools teach about Fitchburg history, but I hope that the high school graduates there know something about Miss Norcross, one of Fitchburg’s eminent citizens.

The Museum of Russian Icons is the result of the dreams and persistence of one man — manufacturer and philanthropist Gordon Lankton. During his business trips to Russia he became interested in Russian icons and eventually almost obsessed with them. The result is one of Clinton’s more remarkable institutions, fittingly housed in a renovated old building. Another Lankton project is the nearby Museum of African Art. Clinton, once a mill town known primarily for carpet manufacturing and book publishing, may one day be identified by its museums.

What impels people to patronize art and endow art museums? Their motivations vary, but they share a belief that art has a special importance to society.

Stephen Salisbury did not pretend to be an art connoisseur. He wisely let the new museum develop under the wise and steady hands of knowledgeable people, like Mrs. Helen Merriman, an accomplished artist, and architect Stephen C. Earle. After his death in 1905, the museum hired a professional director and it has been served by a series of outstanding directors in the century following. I suspect that one of Mr. Salisbury’s motives was because he thought that Worcester, with a population of 100,000 and rapidly growing, deserved to have an art museum.

Miss Norcross was driven by her love for art and her conviction that art was an essential part of community life. Fitchburg a century ago was a noisy, bustling mill town with little time or energy for the finer things of life. Her father had served as mayor of Fitchburg and she knew it well. Her determination to establish an art museum in her home town lasted for years.

Whatever their reasons, we are much in debt to these pioneer benefactors. Their gifts are the kind that keep on giving.